1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network management system, and more particularly to a network management system for managing hardware with a hardware resource management module shared between networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a communication protocol in a network, a standard protocol such as OSI(Open Systems Interconnection) protocol and SNMP(Simple Network Management Protocol) is predetermined so as to enable the data exchange between different types of computers. A network management system for managing the hardware resources in a network adopts such a standard protocol so as to manage the hardware.
FIG. 6 shows the constitution of a communication system having this kind of the conventional network management system. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the communication system comprises a manager 601 that is a device for management, an agent 602 controlled by the manager 601, and a resource manager 603 connected to the agent 602. The manager 601 and the agent 602 are connected via a standard interface corresponding to the standard protocol. While, a protocol of particular commands is installed in an interface connecting the agent 602 and the resource manager 603 for managing the hardware resources. An MIB(Managed Information Base) 611 stores the architecture of network management information and its data base being standardized.
By the way, a program forming the resource manager 603 is produced not in an object-oriented manner but in a function-oriented manner in many cases. When the program forming the resource manager 603 is produced in a function-oriented manner, function-oriented commands are exchanged between the agent 602 and the resource manager 603. An operation request defined by the object-oriented manner between the manager 601 and the agent 602 is different from the function-oriented commands between the agent 602 and the resource manager 603 in the fundamental thinking, which necessitates a protocol converter 621 for converting the protocol between these commands.
An object-oriented operation request sent from the manager 601 to the agent 602 via the standard interface is converted into the inherent function-oriented command form (for example, into a simple structure formed by the commands and variable-length record format) used between the agent 602 and the resource manager 603, which is sent to the resource manager 603 via the inherent interface.
As a method of defining an inherent interface between the agent 602 and the resource manager 603, there is a method of defining a local management interface (an interface between an agent and a resource manager) by the GDMO (Guideline Definition Managed Object) format as disclosed in the article, "Using GDMO Description for a Local Management Interface" (written by Kenji Minato, pp. 115, B-448, Communication Society Assembly, The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, 1995). This method, however, is unable to define the thinking of the message exchanged by the local management interface, the architecture thereof, and the managed object to be managed by the resource manager, but only the GDMO format is adopted there as a means for expressing the definition of the particular specification.
Namely, the above-mentioned article says "An application of a local management interface can be built by the API (Application Programming Interface) similar to the standard management interface." Therefore, it appears that the standard operation by the commands such as "GET", "SET", or the like can be achieved as the API. The above article, however, does not mention the method of defining an object and the unit of the object that is a candidate for these operations.
As mentioned above, in the conventional network management system, a protocol in a local interface between an agent and a resource manager is predetermined by the individual command that differs in every device. Therefore, another detailed specification cannot be decided unless specification of either agent or resource manager is definitely decided, thereby taking a lot of labor in manufacturing a protocol converter.
When an agent and a resource manager differs from each other in the thinking of the software, an object-oriented manner or a function-oriented manner, it is necessary to develop a protocol converter for converting a message by the object-oriented manner into the commands by the function-oriented manner in every combination of an agent and a resource manager, thereby taking a lot of labor and time in the development.
Further, since a local interface between an agent and a resource manager is of original specification decided in every device, when developing a management system for a different device, an interface portion between the agent and the resource manager must be developed newly, thereby deteriorating efficiency.